Dr Feelgood – Milk and Alcohol

“Milk and Alcohol” Single by Dr. Feelgood from the album Private Practice
B-side “Every Kind of Vice”
Released January 1979
Label United Artists Records — UP 36468
Songwriters Nick Lowe/Gypie Mayo
Producer Richard Gottehrer
Charted No.9 in UK

The origin of this song is related in the 1997 biography Down by the Jetty: The Dr. Feelgood Story, by Tony Moon.

It started as a riff by guitarist John Mayo; he played it in a dressing room in Holland to vocalist Lee Brilleaux, then it became an instrumental backing track, then producer Nick Lowe put lyrics to it, although it was produced by Richard Gottehrer.

It is the band’s biggest hit, and was inspired by a John Lee Hooker lyric on the same subject; in Hooker’s song “It Serves You Right To Suffer,” he sings, “Your doctor put you on milk, cream and alcohol.”